Michele Bachmann: “I thank the gentleman from California. I thank Mr. Fitzpatrick for his bill as well. I, too, was shocked when I saw that…”

“I thank the gentleman from California. I thank Mr. Fitzpatrick for his bill as well. I, too, was shocked when I saw that the President of the United States, out of nowhere, at no request from any Member of Congress, had issued a unilateral executive order, which means he decided to take the law into his own hands and, in effect, become his own Congress and decide unilaterally, at the height of the fiscal cliff debate, that he would throw a new wrench into that argument, and it would be this: When there is massive uncertainty, unfinished business, he would decide that he would unilaterally give a pay increase to the United States Congress exactly when the public is uncertain and doesn't know what is going to happen. Will their taxes go up? Will they no longer be the recipient of a spending program? And so now Congress is going to get a spending increase? This was a cynical planned move, Mr. Speaker, on the part of our President. He brought great drama to this effort, unnecessary drama. Because, you see, this House of Representatives already did this job to avert the fiscal cliff. We did this work. It was completed last August. We said that no one's taxes need to go up, and we were able to offset any spending cuts. The work was done.…”